Crazy for coupons: Brockton area shoppers are savvy about saving money

Friday

Jul 22, 2011 at 12:01 AMJul 22, 2011 at 10:02 PM

Katherine Finnell

Brockton resident Mary Tamulevich, one of millions of Americans who use coupons to save money, had a network going for a while in which she would trade coupons and rebates with other people to get more savings.

“It’s a part-time job,” said Tamulevich, who talked as she loaded groceries into her car last week outside the Shaw’s supermarket on Belmont Street in Brockton.

Couponing goes back more than a century, evolving from those familiar small paper coupons that still drive the industry into today’s money-saving strategies that also include electronic discounting through blogs, e-mails and online social networks. Today, consumers have become so savvy that some chains have started putting limits on coupon use after finding that more customers were getting items virtually for free.

Latest trend

The latest trend, “extreme couponing,” involves shoppers who go to extreme lengths to save money with coupons. A shopper who practices extreme couponing might have a $300 grocery bill but only pay a few dollars after redeeming coupons. The practice is popularized with the TLC series “Extreme Couponing” that began airing in April.

Refunding is a kind of extreme couponing that involves rebates and coupons found in already purchased items. Tamulevich said she eventually stopped refunding when the work became too exhausting.

Now, though, with the growing popularity of extreme couponing, some stores have started to revise their coupon policies to limit the ways in which coupons can be used.

“I don’t know if it’s a good idea to limit coupons,” Tamulevich said. “If you have a coupon, you should be able to use it.”

Customer limits

Companies such as Rite Aid and Target recently revised their coupon policies to limit the number of coupons a customer can use per item or shopping trip. For example, at both Target and Rite Aid, “buy one, get one” coupons cannot be combined with other coupons.

“If I had a coupon I couldn’t use, I wouldn’t be too happy about that,” Aveni said.

Aveni said she uses coupons every time she shops, saving an average of $30 a week. She spends about an hour a week looking for coupons for the items on her shopping list.

David McLean, operations manager for Market Basket, said the chain has no plans to change its coupon policy to restrict extreme couponing. He said he doesn’t think extreme couponing is a problem for his stores.

Ackles said an episode of an extreme couponing show was recently filmed at the Roche Bros. supermarket in Norton. The shopper featured was a regular customer. He said the company was happy to film the episode.

“We want people to know they can save money by couponing,” he said. “As long as they operate within the policy, it’s OK.”